A Slow, Strange Dance
by Falling Further
Summary: A Kanzaki x Kikuchi pairing. This is a story I use to help me sleep at night, sometimes. I have no idea how long it is going to be at the time of this upload. Just a warning, it does have the potential to go for a long time. Sleep is not my forte.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Opening Movement

The setting was cliché from a romantic point of view, which suited the young couple's purposes just fine. The stone bench they were sitting on overlooked an empty pond, so clear that you could see straight to its man-made bottom. The sun was on its way out of the sky, bathing the land in a soft purple shade of dusk. The young teenage male explored the female next to him with the desperation available only to men of his age. His hands roamed up and down her wet, white dress as his tongue explored the tender sweetness of her mouth. Just as his hands were in the process of exploring the inside of the dress the young woman abruptly disengaged herself from him.

"Hey babe, what gives? I thought we were enjoying ourselves," he complained as his hands reached out for her. The hands were pushed away gently and for the first time since she had climbed out of the pond he took a good look at the woman sitting next to him. The long hair that was clinging to her body was dyed blond, and the two eyes that seemed to be pulling him in were two different colors. It was hard to tell which colors they were in the light of dusk, but he really didn't care. This girl was hot and ready for it. He didn't need to know anything else. Again, he reached out to her, and yet again he was turned away. She stood up this time, offering him a glimpse of her lithe body as her wet, white dress hugged her figure. She was wearing dark panties, and he wanted so very badly to tear them off with his teeth. His musing was interrupted when she asked in her sultry voice, "That's your bike, right?"

She was very particular about which Laundromat they were headed to, but he wasn't in any mood to complain. In order to dry her dress she had to take it off, after all. After 15 minutes of being intensely aware of feeling her chest pressed against his back they arrived at the building. She hopped off of the bike and skipped into the store with the innocent manner of a five-year-old made irresistible through the magic of a seventeen-year-old body. He quickly followed her into the building, making furtive glances to be sure there wasn't anyone around who could interfere with what he had planned.

She had already peeled the dress off of her body by the time he entered and while he was slightly disappointed at missing that show, the sight before him was well worth every good deed he had done for the past year. As she bent over to throw it into the dryer he quickly kicked off his shoes, pulled down his pants, hopped out of the pants, and lunged at the milky white body before him. "Babe, this is your fault for being so fucking sexy!"

His assault was rewarded with what felt like a ton of bricks crashing down on him as the taser hit his body with an incapacitating voltage of electricity. He was on the ground in seconds, and she was stepping over his body to sit down calmly on one of the chairs. As her dress tumbled softly in the dryer she propped her head against her hand and allowed her mismatched eyes to drift to the window outside. Night had overtaken the sky by now, the darkness seeming fitting in relation to her current thoughts.

From her lips, a faint whisper escaped, "Really, is there no one out there like you, Onizuka?"

The body of the unconscious boy twitched sympathetically.

* * *

The teacher quickly dropped the half stick of chalk onto the board's ledge and proceeded to rub the dust on his pants as was his custom. The chalkboard was littered with equations, the order of which eluded most of the students in the room. "That's all for that topic. Um …" he frowned slightly and nervously glanced at Urumi before he finished, "Any questions?" Surprisingly, the hand that shot up was in the total opposite direction from the one he had been glancing at. "Yes, what is it Nomura? Do you need to use the bathroom?" 

In a shaky, high-pitched voice, Tomoko asked, "Sir, why is it that you solved the problem …" she glanced down at her notebook, "implicitly when it clearly does not have a," again she glanced down, "simple or earlier defined version of x of f."

The teacher coughed and began to look down at his notes, which were the lifeblood of his lectures. x(f) … x(f). "Ah, Ms. Nomura, you mean f of x, right?" The girl turned a shade of pink as she glanced down, scrutinizing her notes, before nodding. "Yes well, that should fix the problem, shouldn't it?" Inexplicably, the girl glanced over in Kanzaki's direction before shaking her head emphatically. Looking at the board now, the teacher realized that he had made an unqualified assumption, one that he had probably qualified in his notes somewhere. He just couldn't seem to find it in the tangled jumble of equations.

The remaining 15 minutes of class were spent with the teaching muttering slightly as he poured over his notes. In a remarkably common event for teachers who faced this set of students, the teacher was saved by the bell. As soon as it rang, he quickly gathered his material and left with his face ablaze. He hadn't taken more than two steps from the room before it erupted into laughter.

Most of the class began gathering around Tomoko's desk, passing around the note that Urumi had floated to Tomoko while the teacher's back was turned. The paper airplane had been perfectly constructed and delivered. This perfection had been required since it had to be received by the notoriously clumsy Tomoko, after all. "As expected from a genius," commented Kikuchi as he turned towards Urumi. The usual victorious smirk was absent from her face as her eyes watched something outside of the window. Kikuchi's eyes narrowed as he studied her body language. Her eyes had a glassy, vacant tint to them; her legs were crossed loosely with the right over the left; her right hand which was usually flipping a pen mechanically remained still. She was pissed. "Hey, Kanzaki," he called as he touched her shoulder lightly, "Are you alright?"

Urumi sighed loudly, shifted her eyes to Kikuchi and stated, "Men's thought processes are as simple to solve as a puzzle that has the answer written prominently all over it. Stimulate one organ and their fate is sealed."

It was Kikuchi's turn to sigh as that one statement told him all he needed to know. She had played the "test a delinquent" game again last night. In these games she would take random men and place them in situations that she had experienced with Onizuka to see if she would find someone who reacted similarly. He had yet to hear of anyone passing the first stage, which was actually pretty good news considering most men wouldn't be able to survive a fifth of the things Onizuka had walked away from.

Murai butted into Kikuchi's desk before he could reply, effectively stealing his attention. "Hey, we're going to go eat up on the roof. Are you coming?" Kikuchi stole a glance at Urumi before shaking his head. Rolling his eyes, Kunio said, "Fine, fine. You two geniuses enjoy your lunch," he stole a quick glance at Urumi to make sure she didn't have anything sharp to throw at him before finishing, "OF LOVE!" He ran away then, but not fast enough to avoid the pen that had been chucked at him before he could even finish his words. It was an Urumi special projectile pen that had been rigged to explode on impact, and explode it did; all over Kunio's back. Cursing, Kunio continued running before she could throw something more painful at him. He didn't slow down until he reached the stairs leading up to the roof, allowing Fujiyoshi and Kusano to catch up to him.

"Dude, she got you good," announced Fujiyoshi as he checked out the remnants of the inky explosion on Kunio's shirt. "That's what you get for antagonizing the Evil Genius."

"Whatever, man, it's fucked up that she has him wrapped around her finger like that," stated Kunio as they climbed the staircase.

Kusano shrugged before throwing in his two cents. "It's his fault. She already turned him down after he confessed, remember?" The other two boys sighed reflexively. It had been a sad day for men at the time. Kikuchi and Urumi were as close to a perfect match as you were going to find in their school, and he had done everything right from every angle they had looked at it from in the ensuing weeks. Kikuchi had been shot down in scathing words according to a first hand account, however. If the male genius couldn't get the girl, how were they supposed to succeed? It wasn't until much later that they realized that the girl in question was Urumi and cheered up considerably.

Kunio was still trying to survey the damage to the back of his shirt when they reached the roof. As he had feared, the damage was extensive. They chose a shaded area to collapse down onto then proceeded to pass around cigarettes and their sole lighter. It took Kunio a full minute to realize that the lighter had disappeared somehow and he was the lone boy without a lit cigarette. He groaned then, for the sound of the lighter going off behind him meant that their teacher had again snaked a free smoke from him.

"Yo, Onizuka, you gotta quit snatching my smokes!" he said as he turned around. He was unprepared for the spectacle going on behind him. Onizuka had the lighter between his feet and was proceeding to light four cigarettes in each of his hands. Quick mental math assured the youth that those were all of the cigarettes that had been in the carton. "God damn it, Onizuka, don't light all of them!" He tried to jump at the offender, but with his inhuman reflexes Onizuka had maneuvered out of Kunio's range and begun to smoke the cigarettes as though he were playing a harmonica. It would have been a laudable stunt if those weren't his cigarettes.

"Sorry Mom-Com-Kun, but I REALLY need these right now," he mockingly apologized as he danced out of his range. The chase continued until Kunio was sweating and panting. Giving up, he collapsed into the shade. Onizuka propped himself up against the chain fence of the roof. "I'll pay you back next paycheck, I swear."

"You always swear that, and I never see a yen," complained Kunio. "I'd take it out of your flesh, but you move like a god damn ninja."

Onizuka burst into laughter then. "I may move like a ninja, but you sure dressed like one, Kunio." Onizuka somehow stole Kunio's shirt and wrapped it around his head with only the black ink dyed parts showing. In his ninja mask he tiptoed around the roof, well out of the reach of the re-energized, furiously chasing Kuno. The joke at the expense of Kunio and his ruined shirt was enough to send Fujiyoshi and Kusano into stitches.

The quickly reddening teenager angrily spat, "It's not my fault Urumi can't take a joke." This only caused Onizuka to laugh harder, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. "What's so funny?"

"It … it just proves how stupid you are! You don't piss off Urumi, man! That's like pissing off a genius!"

It was Kunio's turn to laugh now. "That just proves how stupid YOU are," he retorted between chuckles. "You can't make an analogy by comparing something to itself!" The blank stare that meant that Onizuka didn't understand a thing he was saying was almost enough to make him piss himself, starting another round of jokes at Kunio's expense. It was a vicious cycle, but it was also a pleasant enough way to spend the break.

As the group was leaving to head back inside Kunio asked Onizuka, "Teach, isn't there something you can do about Kikuchi and Urumi?"

"You just spent 15 minutes calling me stupid, and you expect me to figure out something Kikuchi can't figure out?" Onizuka laughed a bit more before putting his arm around Kunio and confidently saying, "I'm sure Mr. Brainiac knows exactly what is going on and has some kind of plan or something."

* * *

Kikuchi had no idea what was going on and hated that he could not hate every minute of it. It seemed like every plan he had imagined involving Urumi had fallen to pieces since his confession. In all of their interactions since that event the girl had been using it as leverage. Truly logic had decided to leave him hanging when he felt that it was time to confess to a self-admitted evil genius. What good was his intellect if it had allowed to him jump headlong into Urumi's most basic trap? It was the exact same one that Onizuka had fallen for! Her soft, light hair had gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight, and her firm, young body had been pressed against him. Were males really as easy to figure out as Urumi frequently complained? 

Apparently they were, because after days of her actively ignoring him here he was sitting with her under a tree overlooking the tennis courts just because she threw him a welcoming glance. As they sat eating their lunches in calm silence, he remembered the first time he had heard about her replacement Onizuka hunts. It had been shortly after his infamous confession which had given the school two truths where there had previously been only rumors. First, contrary to a growing female fan base's beliefs, Kikuchi was NOT involved in a yaoi relationship with Mayu. Second, Urumi Kanzaki wasn't attainable by any male student in the school. The first one obviously had more impact than the second to the student body since most of the male students who were attracted to Urumi were the quiet, stalker type.

He had tried talking her out of these dangerous games at first, but considering anything other than her own interests wasn't one of Urumi's strengths. Being a naturally loquacious, effective pedant was one of her strengths, however and so using a combination of Chinese proverbs and Greek logic she was always able to almost convince Kikuchi that she was doing the human race a service. It was an annoying process to the young man and so his current plan of action was to offer Urumi his ear as she explained her latest escapade in vivid detail. Even though he had to fight down his jealous feelings multiple times, by the end he couldn't help chuckling at the poor idiot's fate. Urumi abruptly stopped her story as soon as his chuckles turned to guffaws, taking the time to stick her tongue out at Kikuchi before asking what he found so hilarious.

"I was just thinking of ways to soften the effect of your almost nude body, and really the only way I could think of would begin with you eating both of our lunches"

Urumi gave him her trademark Cheshire grin. "Even if I did gain some weight, my breasts would get larger and therefore the magnitude of the effect would remain." His sudden silence and blushing cheeks told Urumi that she had just imprinted a mental image on him. Rolling her eyes she expertly flicked a grain of rice at his eye. Her marksmanship was dead on, slipping past his lowered glasses and directly onto his left eye. As he tried to blink away the rice she haughtily stated, "And thus the rightful fate of all perverts. To have their eyes put out."

Kikuchi flashed a wide grin of his own as he removed glasses and proceeded to remove the food from his eye. "You can't blame me for being a healthy young man, Urumi."

"I've told you before, Kikuchi, I don't see you as a man." As soon as the words left her mouth, Urumi realized she had made a mistake. The grin had disappeared from Kikuchi's mouth; his expressive face replaced with the emotionless mask that he showed most of the world. His eyes lost focus and shifted towards the tennis courts.

Urumi sighed inwardly. He entered into this sullen mode every time she brought up something closely related to his confession. Kikuchi was such a baby when it came to rejection. He still actively listened to and participated in conversation, but his eyes would remain distant and unfocused even when he was looking straight at her. It was a shame that Kikuchi was the only one in the school that she could carry on a conversation with. She really hated having to dodge the constant vocal land mines.

She managed to bring him out of his funk by offering him a piece of meat from her lunch, offering it to him at the end of her chopsticks while brandishing an apologetic smile. He quickly nipped at the peace offering, the corners of his mouth turning into a smile as he chewed it.

Boys were really so easy to manipulate.

* * *

The school day ended like every other school day in recent memory, which was in itself another huge disappointment for Urumi. Most of the classes were unbearably boring for her, and the idea of arriving at school just in time for Onizuka's class and then conveniently disappearing again took a prominent place in her thoughts. Her classmates would be severely disappointed in her though, and Kikuchi would probably stop talking to her. Then again, that wouldn't really matter since she only needed his conversation when Onizuka wasn't around. Her mental routine was interrupted abruptly when the Black Stars popped around a corner. Rolling her eyes, she continued to put on her shoes. 

"Hey, little Miss Brain, don't act like you can't see us, 'cause we know that those messed up eyes of yours work." Urumi turned around, crossing her arms under her breasts as she leaned her back against the lockers and patiently waited for whatever they were going to say. Idiots tended to be stubborn when they had something to say, and ignoring them only led to unnecessary conflict.

The second one was talking now. "You may act like you're all tough and stuff, but you know what? You're nothing compared to us, you know?" Urumi smiled neatly at this rhetorical question. The tanning was really rotting away their brains. "Shit, look at her not even knowing what kind of trouble she's in, flashing those ugly teeth at us."

Sighing, Urumi reached up with her right hand to hook some strands of her blonde hair behind her ear. "And what kind of trouble am I in, ladies?"

Predictably, the third one was taking her turn to speak. "We still remember the time you dissed us wit' that biological weapon bullshit, whore. Its payback time," she moved in front of Urumi, quickly slamming her hands against the locker behind Urumi; one hand next to each of her ears. The loud sound was still resonating in her ears when number three pushed her face close to her own and yelled out, "Ganguro Style!" The other two girls had joined their faces into the mix, and proceeded to assault her with a barrage of threatening glares. These glares were of course nothing compared to Onizuka's level of intimidation, so she had to seriously hold herself back to prevent falling into a fit of giggles.

A sizable group of onlookers had gathered by now, so the genius calculated the odds of this altercation turning violent as very slim. She just had to wait until the idiots were done marking their territory by flashing their feathers and urinating on trees and she could get on with the rest of her day. Still, this Ganguro Style payback was interesting in itself. Were they planning an attack? If so, she had her trusty taser hidden in a pocket of her skirt and there were enough witnesses for her to be able to claim self-defense. No, they wouldn't dare, so they had something else in mind. Maybe they were going to assimilate her. The sudden image of herself tanned and buried under ridiculous make-up hit her hard and fast, forcing her to crack a smile. As expected the move just infuriated the girls.

"You know, the bitch still isn't taking us seriously!" screamed number two, her voice rising in pitch.

It was number one's turn to hoot and holler. Her screams were accompanied by a ridiculous hopping motion, the effect of which was lost on Urumi but pleasing to several males in the audience. "She'll get what's comin' to her skanky ass!"

Number two bobbed her head in agreement before adding, "We've been watching you, you know," this next part came out in bad Engrish, "_Rike a Hunk!_"

Here came number three. Their entire conversational order probably could have been mathematically derived now that Urumi thought about it. "She won't be smiling so much after we expose her weakness." This was enough to allow Urumi to change her opinion of the day. It had certainly taken an entertaining turn.

Feeling intrigued, Urumi took a bold step forward. "So expose it. What's my weakness?" A cold smile had taken up residence on Urumi's face, and suddenly the face that had seconds earlier been showing signs of slight annoyance showed no emotion at all. The crowd that had gathered around involuntarily took a step back. Like most sane people in the school the onlookers had a healthy fear of class four's Evil Genius.

The three girls stepped back along with the rest of the crowd, taking a moment to exchange nervous looks. The first finally broke the silence with a forced laugh, soon joined by laughs from the other two. "You won't know it until it's too late." They beat a quick retreat then, leaving so quickly that the onlookers could have sworn that there was a cloud of dust rising in the air.

Urumi walked away from the scene of the incident briskly, yet calmly. Her mind was turning over what could be perceived as her weaknesses. By the time she left the school she had three possibilities in mind, and a feeling of disappointment at the fact that the girls weren't going to force tan her.

She had a feeling that she might look pretty good tanned.

* * *

Kikuchi was resting his feet on the concrete "pot" of a publicly planted tree which sat in front of an arcade Kunio and company were currently donating their allowances to. Leaning his back against the tree, his eyes scanned the people passing by as he leisurely smoked his cigarette. His cell phone went off as he was nearing the end of the cigarette. After taking a second to recognize who had been assigned to that particular ring tone, Kikuchi flicked the butt of the cigarette towards the ground. Removing the phone from his pants pocket he flipped it open and held it to his ear. "What's up, Kanzaki?" 

There was a humorous tone to Urumi's voice. "Kikuchi, I think now would be the time to develop a fetish for ganguro girls."

After taking a second to re-process that sentence, the only thing the level headed boy could respond with was a stupefied, "Huh?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: An Unexpected Pivot Step

Kikuchi was forced to settle for that cryptic statement because as soon as Urumi heard his befuddled answer she broke into peals of laughter that lasted until she abruptly disconnected her connection. Sighing to himself, Kikuchi gazed sorrowfully at the partially wasted cigarette. The embers were still partially lit after the brief phone call, and a small stream of smoke wafted lazily into the air. His concentration was broken when Kunio, Fujiyoshi, Kusano, and Yoshikawa gathered around him, having spent their allotted pocket change in record time. Looking up from the cigarette to his nearly broke friends, he asked, "What's up next?"

Kunio answered as if on cue with a ludicrously loud growl of his stomach. Laughing heartily, the group headed towards the closest fast food restaurant, McDonald's. After everyone had ordered their food the boys grabbed a booth and commenced the destruction of their value meals. At one point a minor war erupted as the ever hungry Kunio had taken to snatching fries from his closest, in terms of position, friends. This cruel game of weakly disguised subterfuge and deception didn't end until Kunio was covered in ketchup and thoroughly full.

As he was wiping the ketchup off of his face with a napkin, Kunio suddenly asked, "Yo, Kikuchi. Urumi isn't really angry about earlier, is she? I mean, she's not going to try to kill me or something, right?" With a smile on his face, Kikuchi shook his head. The sigh of relief that Kunio released could be easily heard the throughout the restaurant. There had been genuine fear in his expression before this cathartic release, which forced the rest of the table to break out into laughter. "It's not funny you jackasses! If Urumi wanted to kill me, she could probably do it and make it look natural and shit!"

Kusano interrupted his laughter to tease, "Dude, you're so afraid of Urumi that if she wanted to kill you all she would need to do is glare at you! You'd die of dehydration as the piss flowed freely down your legs!" This was of course met with more raucous laughter.

The now bright crimson Kunio muttered, "Well at least my mother's not fat and ugly." The laughter abruptly died down from two of the members of the table as Kusano wept bitterly into Fujiyoshi's shoulder. The long haired boy handled the sobbing one as one would expect someone to treat a toddler, patting him on the shoulder and whispering comforts in his ear. Feeling slightly vindicated, Kunio turned his attention to Kikuchi and asked, "So, how's operation "Matching Brains, Matching Hearts!" coming along?"

The table's noise level became silent so suddenly that even the McDonald's workers noticed and began to wonder about what had happened. One of the braver employees decided to sneak in commando style, broom in hand as she crawled towards the table on her belly. She was immediately turned away by the heavy, dark aura that seemed to surround the table. Effectively frightened, she dropped the broom and hastily scurried back to the safety of the sales counter.

All eyes in the booth were turned expectantly towards Kikuchi, curious to see what was happening with the school's most predicted yet failed couples. His face showing a calm smile, Kikuchi shrugged slightly and said, "I think I'm supposed to be shifting my romantic attention to ganguro girls."

The unmistakable crashing sound from the face faults of the male students could be clearly heard outside of the building.

* * *

Kikuchi did not get the chance to ask Urumi what she had meant by the cryptic statement until right before Onizuka's class. She had turned off her cell phone the night before, and the young mand decided not to risk calling Urumi's home phone. That first and last time had been traumatizing, and the odds of Ms. Kanzaki changing her attitude in a few months were comparable to that of Tomoko going a day without accidentally falling on her ass provocatively. Urumi had spent the morning classes napping; a state of being for the genius that was expectedly welcome from her terrified teachers in spite of the obviousness her fluffy pink pillow brought to the affair. Her watch alarm went off ten minutes before the end of the class that preceeded Onizuka's. The immediate look of horror that transfigured itself over the history teacher's face as Urumi shut off the alarm, stretched, and put away her pillow was enough to force the class into unrepentant laughter. The teacher regained his composure slightly after the laughter died down, managing to finish his lesson in stammering phrases before the bell rang. 

As the teacher was performing the customary walk of shame, Kikuchi turned towards Urumi and asked, "Kanzaki, what exactly did you mean about my developing a fetish for ganguro girls?"

Urumi was still rubbing her eyes when Kikuchi began asking the question, but by the time he was done a grin had erupted on her face. She stood up to stretch her back a bit, then told Kikuchi what had happened the day before with the Black Stars in precise detail that is only available to those with exact memory. By the end of the tale, she was sitting on top of her desk, kicking her legs happily. Kikuchi smiled inwardly at her body language because it affirmed something he had known about Urumi for a while now. She felt most alive when she was flirting with danger, and that feeling alone was enough to send her into giddy states of euphoria. This behavior also helped to explain the strength of her attraction to Onizuka, and the lack of her attraction to himself.

Slightly sobered by his thoughts, Kikuchi pondered out loud, "So one of the three weaknesses that you had in mind when you left the school had to do with me, I take it?"

Urumi nodded emphatically, "Correct, and after I had left the school I narrowed down the choices to precisely you. You see, the other two theoretical weaknesses would require insight and forethought that are beyond the reach of those three brain-bleached idiots."

Feeling his cheeks redden slightly, Kikuchi decided to go on the offensive before his face gave away the slight feeling of happiness rising in his chest. "So, I'm your weakness, then?"

Urumi rolled her eyes and tossed a nearby rubber eraser at the boy. "Look, from an outside stalker's point of view, it would seem like you were the closest thing I have to a boyfriend. Blame it on the lack of intelligent conversation I can find at this school. You're the only person around here that I can converse with, and you just happen to be male." That sentence did the trick for Kikuchi's cheeks, the threatening redness disappearing behind the cool, calm mask. "Anyway, in addition to the other conceivable weaknesses requiring actual thought, stealing away a guy their enemy likes is just the type of stupid, uninventive attack I would expect from those three deep-fried fools."

As usual, everything about Urumi's thought processes were logically sound and all Kikuchi could offer was his agreement with everything that she had said. Not for the first time, he realized that they shared a very stale relationship. Their conversations were cool, mathematical, and logical in character. Everything discussed was thoroughly explored from a mental standpoint before being tossed away in favor of a new topic or event. Again not for the first time he wished that Urumi would come to him with a problem that could not be "solved" tidily. Something that would allow their relationship to move beyond this neat, clean verbal dance that they had both grown accustomed to.

He had tried bringing that change about himself, once, but that event had of course become infamous. Unfortunately for those interested in the truth, that infamous version of his "confession" that had been shuffled around throughout the school like wildfire suffered from the Tall Tale syndrome, each teller adding superfluous dramatic details to their own rendition of the story. Neither Kikuchi nor Urumi bothered to deflate the inflated story even though they could both have retold the tale in crystal clarity. Urumi of course remembered everything because all of her memories were as easily accessible as an organized file cabinet. It was precisely memorable to Kikuchi, however, because he would never forget the sudden, furious beating of his chest as Urumi had lain her head down on his shoulder.

Like a boulder suddenly tipped to roll down a hill, Kikuchi's memory of the event began to unravel in frightening clarity. He remembered their chance meeting outside of school at the bookstore, and the ensuing, unexpected date.

But just as his memory was getting to the parts he liked to remember, his revelry was broken by Urumi hopping excitedly off of her desk. She immediately assumed the perfect "good student" posture; her feet and legs were held tightly together, her posture straight and erect, her hands folded together on top of her desk, and her face showed its brightest smile. All of this meant that Onizuka was entering the classroom. Smiling sadly to himself, Kikuchi turned his own attention towards the sliding door.

Neither of the two, not to mention any other student in the class, had expected one of the Black Stars to stride into the room. Grabbing a piece of chalk from the ledge of the board, she wrote "STUDY HALL" in broad strokes on the board, finishing with a "v(-.-)v". After sashaying to the front of the desk, with all of the grace of a teenage girl she made a short hop from the floor to the top of the teacher's desk. All of the boys in the front of the class reflexively strained to see under her skirt, but the girl known as Marcia to most, and as Number Two to Urumi, had crossed her legs as she jumped and smoothed out her skirt immediately after landing.

Marcia just sat imperiously on top of the desk for a few silent, stunned moments, basking in the attention that her unexpected entry had garnered. Finally, her voice boomed, "I regret to inform you all that your teacher had a pressing matter to attend to, you know?"

As the rest of the class exchanged whispers, Kunio immediately stood up, folded his arms across his chest and asked in an equally booming voice, "What the hell did you do to Onizuka, bitch?"

A false smile found its way onto the tanned girl's face as her gaze locked directly on Kunio's eyes. "You're kinda cute, but you're really lacking in the manners department, sweetie. Not like your dear teacher."

Reddening to the tips of his ears, Kunio somehow managed to bark out, "You still didn't answer my question."

The false smile softened slightly, and was replaced with a pout. "You know, my friends and I were just telling your teacher about a friend of ours who is really in need of help. Before we could even finish our sad, sad story, he was all hyped up to help out, so my pals took him to where she was." The class groaned in unison at this reasonable explanation. Onizuka would drop every responsibility he had in order to help a student in need. Throw in a few tears from some high school girls, even deeply tanned ones doused in make-up, and he would ride a stolen motorcycle into Hell at top speed without a second thought.

Feeling embarrassed, Kunio muttered out a quick apology and heavily sat back down at his desk. After Kunio had taken a seat, a voice from the back of the room asked, "Why aren't you with Onizuka helping your friend." Focusing on the origin of the voice, Marcia found the mismatched eyes she had been seeking out when she entered the room.

Marcia had a full smile on her face as she answered, "We wanted to take responsibility for stealing your teacher away, so I stayed behind to let you know. Not taking responsibility for your actions can be a weakness, can't it? We know all about weaknesses, you know?" The smile disappeared suddenly, fitting the cold tone of her words, "Sooner or later, we all have to take responsibility for our actions."

She hopped off of the desk then, smoothing out her skirt quickly before sashaying out of the room. She popped her head in suddenly and exclaimed, "Enjoy your study hall!" before closing the sliding door quietly behind her.

The room erupted into noise as soon as the door shut. None of this noise was due to concern over Onizuka. What was happening was a very common occurrence, and if the class had learned anything it was that they could trust Onizuka. In the back corner of the room, however, a silent storm was brewing.

Urumi's "perfect student" pose had imploded into a shifting dance of concern, annoyance, and anger. Kikuchi watched her uneasily; deeply contemplating whether he should be comforting her or preparing to decrease the severity of her plans.

Just like the rest of the class, it was out of their hands, however.

The magnitude of what was happening just wouldn't be clear until the Great Teacher returned to them.

* * *

Author's Notes: 

Let it be known that I love constructive criticism. I know that my writing skills are nowhere near perfect, and I don't have anyone around me that I would show these things to, so an editor is out of the question. I would even welcome a flame or two, since if my writing is capable of inciting that level of emotion I must be doing something (not necessarily right, but negative verification is still verification).


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Three Quick Paces Together to the Right

Author's Notes:

I just wanted to take a few sentences to explain a couple of things. My knowledge of the series is based solely on the manga, so I am not sure if some of the characters that are already in the story or are going to be making an appearance have been introduced to some of the readers. I don't really want to take the time to re-introduce the characters in these stories, so I'm going to list the relevant manga volumes for side characters that I have used or know I will be using. The Black Stars: Volume 8. Ai Tokiwa: Volume 21.

There are a couple of Japanese points that most of the people interested in GTO are already familiar with, but I want to explain them just in case. "Onee-chan" is a title given to an older sister. "kun" is given to a respected male. "Itadakimas" is an expression that the Japanese use before they begin their meals. "megane" is Japanese for glasses (as in spectacles, not cups). If you want a more in depth explanation on any of the above, I would consult google. My knowledge of languages beyond English is fairly limited.

If you've read up to this point, you either like the story or you're a stickler for completing what you've begun. To both of the aforementioned types of people, I would like to thank you for reading. I hope the story lives up to whatever expectations you have for it. To the Iowan Patriot, I found that I just can't bring myself to dumb down my writing. It just doesn't feel right when I read through it again. I would love to say that this is due to a writer's code, but I suspect that my own pedant nature is shining through. Please forgive me this vanity, but I feel that any readers I lose through this decision wouldn't enjoy the story as a whole anyway. Besides, it doesn't hurt anyone to increase their vocabulary.

* * *

The rest of the school day passed in a relatively unremarkable fashion. The teachers marched in to spout off their lessons and the students did their best to either absorb the information or fight off the warm, gentle hands of Sleep. Fujiyoshi actually failed to perform either of the aforementioned student duties during Algebra, his punishment being immediate, painful retrieval from dreamland via a textbook dropped onto the back of his skull. 

By the time the last school bell had rung, Urumi's troubled physical stance had shifted back to a serene one. This was a small comfort to the watchful boy sitting next to her, however since Urumi had performed some of her most devious plans while displaying that exact same look. As she neatly packed away her school belongings Kikuchi mentally reaffirmed that he would do his best to accompany her outside of school today. With some pleasant conversation and perhaps some light recreational activities he should be able to keep her from fixating on Onizuka and whatever plans of vengeance were currently building up in her mind. These were very logical, valid reasons and almost served the purpose of covering the notion that this entire idea of his was only a disguised attempt to spend more time with her.

The heavy knowledge of that ulterior motive did not stop Kikuchi from waiting for Urumi outside of the school gate. He was not alone as he stood outside the gate, as there were a handful of students from each of the grade levels milling about in a similar fashion. He did not know any of these students beyond vague facial recognition, so after smiling and nodding at a few of the people he leaned against the medium sized brick wall. Waiting for someone outside of the gate was a new experience for him. It was a ritual usually reserved for those who shared a significant relationship with another member of the school; a best friend, a sibling, a girl friend or boy friend. These were all things that Kikuchi lacked. As his lower back pressed against the bricks, he realized that at the moment the category Urumi would most easily fit into at the moment would be that of the best friend.

His lamentable sigh was interrupted as Urumi briskly exited the school. Kikuchi stole a second to take in the image of the girl as the self-inflicted gust pushed against her clothing and whipped stray blond strands of hair across her face before removing himself from the wall and following after her. She was walking faster than he had expected her too, forcing the young man to jog slightly to catch up to her. Just as he was pulling up to her shoulder he called out, "Urumi!"

The girl stopped suddenly and looked to her left. The startled look on her face was not one that many were treated too, and Kikuchi counted his lucky stars as he smiled welcomingly at her cute expression. The expression disappeared all too quickly, replaced with a matching smile on Urumi's lips. In perfect English, she asked, "Kikuchi, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Kikuchi held his smile and answered in slightly accented English, "I was just wondering how you were doing."

His quick response earned him a broader grin and a light slap on his shoulder. Reverting back to Japanese, the girl complemented, "Your command of the English language is improving! You still have enough of an accent for an American to point and laugh at you, though."

His smile had mostly disappeared by then, but his tone was still light as he said, "As long as it is good enough to get through your random language fluctuations, I consider my command of the English language sufficient." He indicated slightly with his head that they should continue moving, and the girl followed his lead without complaint. They continued at a quick pace, but slower than Urumi's had been as she left the gate. "So, I answered your question. Arithmetic and Karmic balance assure me that you owe me an answer as well."

"Theoretically I could just leave it at that and provide the world with a negative answer and a slight blemish on my Karma chart," she chided. His suddenly flustered face was worth the effort of the verbal repartee, and elicited a slight chuckle from the girl. "Don't worry, don't worry. I'm perfectly, mentally healthy. I'm not about to go on some psychotic killing spree." She smiled innocently and spread her hands out wide with her palms upwards submissively. "That is all that was bothering you, right?" He nodded his head. "I shall see you tomorrow then."

She turned to walk away then, her thoughts already abandoning the boy she was leaving behind. Kikuchi admired the backside of her form for a few seconds before his guilty feeling forced him to gaze upwards. It was a pleasant afternoon, the sun shining down on the earth through a clear, blue sky. The streets were fairly populated with students returning home from school and adults busying themselves with their afternoon chores. The chatter of nature and human beings was at a high level, but none of it reached the ears of the young man. In his mind all he could hear were the sound of Urumi's shoes hitting the concrete as she walked away. It was a surprisingly loud sound, but it felt hollow and empty. A sudden jolt of inspiration told him that this was an important moment. He should not let her leave.

It was the first time in quite a while that Urumi's face had displayed shock in such rapid succession. Kikuchi had again run up to her from behind and placed his hand on her left shoulder. Turning to face the boy, she placed all of her weight on her right foot grabbed her right elbow with her left hand and expectantly asked, "What is it, Kikuchi?"

He stood there for a full five seconds with his mouth gaping open like a fish. His sudden rush had been instinctual, so explaining what he was feeling in words was nigh impossible. His mind floundered around for a sufficient reason for his sudden outburst. He finally regained his composure and had the good manners to blush slightly as he asked, "Would you like to get something to eat with me?"

Urumi blinked at the question, having not expected the sudden invitation. "You mean, like a date?"

The blush deepened on the boy's face, but he managed to maintain the illusion of calm over the rest of his body. He looked away slightly to lessen the effect of the blush and the rising sense of embarrassment before slowly qualifying, "Well, I am rather hungry and it is a shame to eat alone."

A small smile had worked its way onto Urumi's face. She stepped towards Kikuchi and placed her left hand on his shoulder in a conspiratorial manner. Her face leaned closer as she clarified in a soft voice, "I do not think you understood what I was asking about. Is this your treat?" Her face was now closer to his own than it had ever been. He could smell and even taste her breath as it washed across his face. Somehow he managed to nod affirmatively in her direction. Urumi's left arm moved down his right shoulder to hook itself with his arm. As they began walking in a direction of Kikuchi's choosing, Urumi suddenly exclaimed in an excited voice, "Itadakimas!"

Neither of the two students noticed the small girl holding a rabbit backpack in her arms as she sat quietly on the brick wall. As Kikuchi and Urumi walked away arm in arm, the girl stared after them, squeezing her backpack tightly to her chest.

* * *

The restaurant of Kikuchi's choosing had been ten minutes away from the school. They had spent the time of the trip engaged in their usual scintillating conversation, discussing topics that most high school students would dare not touch with a ten foot pole. From an outsider's point of view they appeared to be a normal teenage couple walking together arm in arm after school. This fact did not escape Kikuchi's attention, and allowed him to genuinely maintain his smile in spite of the fact that Urumi steered about a fourth of their conversations in Onizuka's direction. How she had managed to do that while they were talking about things like the future of electromagnetic pulses and the mutual love-hate relationship between the East and West cultures of the globe would continue to puzzle him for weeks afterwards. 

The restaurant that Kikuchi eventually brought them to was a revolving sushi establishment. He had not planned for this sudden outing and therefore did not have the greatest of financial backings stored within his wallet. Tactical thinking was therefore necessary to make sure that this entire event went off without a hitch. The type of restaurant would allow Kikuchi to discreetly observe what Urumi was eating and then make his own decision appropriately.

They chose two seats that had a clear view of the window since the street outside bustled with people and one of their favorite pastimes happened to be discussing random people. Many were the unfortunate students who had been verbally dissected when they passed by Kikuchi and Kanzaki during their lunch break. After a brief interaction on how far a rather heavyset pedestrian would be able to walk before collapsing of exhaustion Urumi turned her attention to the revolving belt of food.

The genius immediately felt Kikuchi staring at her more intensely than usual. This coupled with the fact that the boy had snuck in a peek into his wallet while they were seating themselves allowed her to deduce that his wallet was not as large as his sudden invitation would suggest. Turning her now mischievously grinning face away from Kikuchi, Urumi reached out to grab a couple of plates of Ootoro sushi. She placed one in front of herself and quickly passed the other one to Kikuchi.

Feeling his face pale, he said, "Kanzaki, I am not sure how much you think a non-working high school student makes, but I can assure you that I cannot afford to fill our stomachs with Ootoro."

Kanzaki turned her face towards Kikuchi and patted him on his left shoulder. "Do not worry, little boy. Urumi-neechan will take care of you." Kikuchi turned this over in his mind quickly. She had been working rather closely with her once again successful mother, so she should theoretically have a sizeable disposable income. Even though he noticed that her face was displaying a rather naughty grin at the moment, he decided to throw caution to the winds. After all, it wasn't every day that he was able to eat high class foods. While it was not conventional for a male to be treated by a female on the date, Urumi was probably the most unconventional girl in a 100 mile radius so the young man decided to let it go. The pair dined like royalty on the best that the restaurant had to offer.

By the time he had finished eating he felt at least ten pounds heavier, and remarked as much to Urumi. The girl turned her head towards the boy, the naughty smile making a sudden resurgence on her face. She leaned in close to his head then, causing the blood to rush to Kikuchi's face. As soon as her lips were close to his ear, her softest voice whispered, "That's really a shame, since ten pounds are probably going to slow you down considerably."

The true meaning of the whisper hit Kikuchi immediately, and it took a serious amount of determination to keep a groan from escaping his mouth. There was a rather large pile of expensive, empty dishes in front of the pair, and Urumi meant to pull an Onizuka on the poor restaurant owners. He had precious few seconds to pity the owners since immediately after whispering in his ear Urumi had sprung off of her seat. Grabbing his right arm forcefully she pulled him off of his seat and towards the exit. The cashier barely had time to recognize what was happening before they were outside of the restaurant and fleeing like gazelles.

* * *

They ran long and hard, not stopping until they were five blocks away from the restaurant in a random public park. The area was secluded from the rest of the city by towering deciduous trees whose leaves were colored the vibrant green of spring. The walkway that led into and out of the park was surrounded on either side by benches and street lights at random intervals. Placed in the center of the park was a playground designed for grade school children and made entirely out of recycled materials. The two were sprawled side by side on their backs on a grassy hill that overlooked the playground. Both of them were gasping hard for air and laughing as hard as either had laughed in a while. 

Urumi was the first to regain control over her body and took the opportunity to survey the area. Spying a set of swings on the playground she stood up and began walking towards them. As she strode over she quickly removed the yellow sweater of her uniform and tossed it to the side. Kikuchi had recovered by that point and after observing Urumi for a few moments he decided that she had the right idea. His body was far too hot from all of the running, and the breeze from the swing would be an ideal way to cool off. After shrugging out of his uniform jacket he threw it into a pile with Urumi's sweater and jogged over to the swing set.

The blonde genius was seated motionlessly on the swing set by the time Kikuchi caught up to her. "What's the matter, Urumi-neechan? Too tired to move?"

Urumi pouted in Kikuchi's direction and kicked her legs in the air agitatedly. Suddenly her left arm shot out and a pointer finger was tossed in his direction. In a voice as sweet as honey, she loudly commanded him, "Push me!" Smiling to himself, the boy did as he was commanded. Each of his pushes was rewarded with an excited, "Whee!" Before long Urumi was soaring back and forth through the air at a fast pace. Having given the girl a suitable swinging velocity, Kikuchi found a pole to lean his back against as he sat down and admired his work.

After watching her swing back and forth silently for a while, Kikuchi finally broke the silence by complaining, "Onizuka is rubbing off on you in a bad way, Urumi. They're going to have our pictures posted at the police station because of this dine and dash stunt."

Although the words were condemnatory in origin, the tone of his voice still had the hint of their earlier laughter. Urumi responded by laughing at this faux-concern and stated, "If they do manage to send out a sketch of us, I'm going to be in relatively more trouble than you. How many girls around here do you see with blond hair, a blue eye, and a brown eye?"

Kikuchi smiled at this and quickly answered, "Only one, and I don't see her nearly enough." This answer was followed with another pregnant pause as the girl interpreted the meaning of the words and the boy silently berated himself for speaking before thinking. Both of the students used the time to look around them. Besides the two of them there were a handful of children enjoying the rest of the playground. In addition, a woman in her late 20s or early 30s, presumably a parent to at least one of the kids, sat on bench that overlooked the playground. Her attention was divided between an open manga that lay on her lap and the children that were running haphazardly around.

Deciding that changing the subject would be the safest course, Urumi asked, "What kind of manga do you think she's reading? She looks like a housewife, but those bored kinds of ladies are in constant danger of getting into the sickest stuff."

Kikuchi did not take the bait, instead asking a question that had been weighing on his mind since the girl had accepted his invitation. "Urumi, you really aren't worried about Onizuka are you?"

This question caught Urumi off guard and she took a few moments to mentally chew on the idea. Right now, the only things actively on her mind were the feeling of the wind as she swung back and forth, the retaliatory actions of the restaurant owners that they had ditched, the boy seated to her left, and possibly the branch of Chaos Theory that described the way the clouds were moving above her head. She therefore answered, "You seem to be correct. I am not currently worried about the Great Teacher."

The young man could not keep a smile from forming on his face. A small victory was still a victory. Now was not the time to gloat, however. There was something bothering him. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with this right pointer finger as he stated, "You know, a year ago you would be dragging me along to help rescue him."

Urumi nodded her agreement at the statement before qualifying, "A year ago the man was still sitting on a tremulous moral code." She took a couple of vigorous swings before clarifying, "His virtuous manner and generous spirit were still capable of being shaken to pieces by a crude insult or an unclothed portion of feminine flesh." She grinned at Kikuchi as she said, "He has calmed down considerably since then."

Not about to be brought down by Urumi's teacher worship, Kikuchi remarked offhand, "Most of the class would agree that Professor Fuyutsuki has had a lot to do with that." He carefully noted how Urumi's eyes narrowed slightly at the woman that Urumi considered her romantic rival. "Anyway, I am digressing. I assume that you knew when I asked you to eat with me that I was concerned with what you were planning to do to the Black Stars."

"Of course I knew," the young woman said between swings. "I can read you like an open book by now, megane-kun." One of the kids had been passing by the swing set during this statement and had subsequently fallen to the ground laughing at Kikuchi's nickname. Obvious things are always hilarious to children, after all.

Kikuchi began to stand up then. As he was getting up, he continued, "If you really weren't planning any retaliation, then there was no reason for you to come with me."

Urumi eyebrows had furled up by this point. Kikuchi was obviously bringing the conversation to some kind of conclusion but the character of that conclusion evaded her. Curiosity forced her to ask, "What are you getting at, Yoshito?"

Kikuchi couldn't help grinning at the use of his first name. Urumi only called him that when she wanted to throw him off and give herself some time to think. He moved to stand in front of the swinging Urumi who had slowed down the speed of her swings considerably. His hands were placed nonchalantly in his pants pockets, but his eyes were staring directly into hers. The girl noticed that those eyes were blazing with a particular intensity, and that the wind that was rustling through the playground ruffled his cropped, dark brown hair pleasantly. At that moment she realized that he wasn't that bad to look at, on occasion. His lips finally formed a question that his eyes had been screaming at her. "If you knew all of that, why did you still come with me today?"

The puzzled look fell from her eyebrows to the rest of her face now. "To the surprise of the universe, I am afraid that I do not understand the question."

The grin disappeared from his face suddenly, but instead of the expressionless mask that Urumi expected to see when Kikuchi stopped smiling, this face was just as full of emotion. It seemed to be shouting out its vulnerability. Urumi had absolutely no idea how to read this face or how she felt about seeing it.

Finally his lips began moving and the stunned girl heard him ask, "Why did you agree to come here with me today when you absolutely refused to do basically the same thing three months ago?"


End file.
